Telescope XML

Stuart over at Astronomy Blog is trying to organise the creation of an XML structure for astronomical observations. He proposed the idea a short while ago but has recently posted anew with regard to getting some help in creating an XML schema for this new kind of feed. This sort of thing could one day be linked into, say, Google Earth, to allow people to follow where the telescopes of the world are pointing.

The implications are possibly very important. Future, large-scale astronomical events could be easily organised via such feeds to allow fuller coverage and better public communication.

Incidentally I recently found a link for Google Earth that allows you to follow planes (on a 30 minutes delay) in real-time through the air. This is very cool and shows what can be accomplished with standardised data schemas. Click for the openATC website.

I'm Robert Simpson and I work at Google in London. I am the creator of <a href="http://dotastronomy.com">.Astronomy</a>. I am astrophysicist formerly of the <a href="http://zooniverse.org">Zooniverse</a> at the University of Oxford.